The {Almost} Perfect Seat for Me: Yellow Vintage Office Chair

If you ask my husband what life with me has been like since we moved into our apartment, he’ll probably tell you it’s somewhere between everyday craziness and full-on, straight jacket, lock-me-up-and-throw-away-the-key insane. I’ve bought fabrics and sewn pillow covers, only to change my mind about them hours later. I even bought a chair and made my husband strap it into the trunk of our tiny Honda Accord, only to decide once we got it home that it just wasn’t right.

Yeah. I’ve been more than a little nutty. I’m convinced, however, that I WILL find the perfect chair and accessories for our home if it kills me (and it just might). And if I were basing my sought-after perfection on looks alone, this restored vintage 60s style office chair would be sitting in our office right now. Etsy seller Monarch Restoration, of Austin, TX, did a fabulous job bringing this chair back to life. The bright yellow is just what I need to get me going every day when I don’t feel like working, and the contrasting lattice print black and white fabric seat is quite literally making me drool. This is the kind of chair I see when I decorate rooms in my dreams. So what’s the problem? Well…all that gorgeous yellow fabric is none other than my arch nemesis: vinyl.

Why, Monarch? Why do you torture me so? I’ll have to pull out my green calculator on this one to figure out whether the fact that this chair is vintage negates the fact that it’s smothered in toxic vinyl. And decide if I don’t mind holding my nose every time I sit down. Maybe I’ll just think of the vinyl as faux leather, which would be vegan, and therefore green, right? Nah. Not really. This is torture, I tell you. Sheer torture.

Why It’s Green:

Vintage office chair circa 1960s (that very unfortunately also happens to be reupholstered in vinyl)

Beautiful chair! I feel like that the fact that it’s vintage would outweigh the fact that it’s vinyl, especially if you took care of it and kept it for years. But depending how far it would need to be shipped to get to you, maybe you’d be able to find a better vintage choice locally…

That yellow chair is absolutely AHH-Mazing! I too, am drooling over it from the photo and coveting it . And frankly, I could care less that it’s vinyl. Afterall, I don’t litter… or smoke… or have a car.

@Nexyoo Good point! I need to find a great local upholstery shop, because I find so many chairs on Craigslist and in thrift stores that I just don’t have the skill to tackle myself.

@Meligenia It is a good idea to avoid PVC, as it offgasses potentially toxic chemicals. However, there are other, safer vinyl options like EVA and PEVA, which don’t contain chlorine. I would still advise that you avoid any type of vinyl though, particularly if you have chemical sensitivities.

@Oonafey I was being funny, but you’re right. Whenever I see a handbag or upholstery being advertised as “vegan,” I try to dig deeper, because that generally means alternatives like vinyl, which I don’t want in my home either. To be fair though, the seller of this chair did not try to use this tactic. That was just me trying to have a sense of humor

@Amanda Oh, the wonders of vinyl! Thankfully, this chair (or one like it) would be in my office and away from the elements, so no sticking or peeling. But I can still imagine it might get pretty uncomfortable after a while.

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Hey, There!

I’m Jennae Petersen, and I’m a lot of things. A wife, a mother, a graphic designer and a connosieur of beautiful things. Green Your Decor was borne of my frustration with finding beautiful things that were also eco-friendly, and inspiration to reduce my own carbon footprint and help others do the same. LEARN MORE